Missing cellphones and germy children.

Pictures of cellphones (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I headed back to work today.  They managed just fine without me, although I’m pretty sure that my co-worker, who had to take my place at Toddler Time, would have rather I had been there.  Not that she doesn’t like kids, it’s just that it’s an exhausting hour and a half, and having it sprung on you without warning is not the best way to be ready for it.  I think I need to bake her a thank you gift of some sort.

I seem to have caught a head cold somewhere.  I don’t know if it’s the same thing that cause M.’s croup, and I don’t think it’s what H. had because my throat isn’t really sore, but I do also have quite a bit of contact with the public at work.  Especially with children who, as we all know, are little tiny petri dishes just waiting to infect someone.

Tomorrow is the family party for H. and M.’s birthdays, which were  both this month.  My in-laws, my mom and some family friends will be here.   I have work to do around the house, a cake to bake, and things to prepare.  I also have a headache, possibly a slight fever and the attention span of a ferret.  It’s not going well.

As for my cell phone, I use it as my alarm clock.  I distinctly remember setting it last night to go off this morning for work.  It has since vanished.  I thought I put it in its usual spot on my nightstand, but it’s not there.  I don’t remember it going off (which really means nothing since I turn it off in my sleep on occasion), and I tried calling it with no response.  So that’s another thing I’ll have to hunt down today.

Or maybe instead, I’ll take a nap.  Who needs a clean house, right?

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How is it already Wednesday?!

H.’s party went very well.  The girls watched none of the movies we rented, mostly listening to Beatles music and talking in that strange language only other 12-year-old girls understand.  I swear, it’s like listening to a conversation of nonsequetors, but they all seem to know what they’re saying so I guess that’s what counts.

This week’s focus is split between the garage and M.’s room. We’ve been using half of the garage to store things moved from the old house that haven’t been unpacked yet since we didn’t have a second car for that bay.  Chris’s work truck was too huge.  Now he has a little car, so I want to clean it out for parking purposes.  I can do that over time, but I need to take care of the front part by tonight because tomorrow morning we’re having our generator installed, and it would be great of the electrician could get to the electrical panel and the generator.  Since Monday was a gorgeous day here (70′s and sunny), it’s pretty much done.  I need to move a very large fish/animal tank into the storage room, and take out the recycling tonight, but otherwise it’s all set.

M.’s birthday party is Saturday, so besides keeping the rest of the house clean, which is much easier after getting it straightened out for H.’s party, I need to work on M’s room.  I’m putting up some bright green paper behind her built-in shelves.  Her walls are wood-paneled, and since we’re renting for now (we plan to buy the house after we’ve rented for two years) I can’t take it down or paint her room.  Since “wood-paneled” is hardly any preschooler’s idea of a dream room, I’ve done a lot of things to decorate it and make it look more like a little girl’s room and less like a home office.

Putting up the paper shouldn’t be difficult, and she picked it out so it’s a color she likes.  Once the paper’s up, the shelves can go back on, and then I can arrange stuffed animals on the shelves once more.  That alone will go a long way toward cleaning up the room.  After that, it’s a matter of putting things in the right places and vacuuming the rug.  Ideally, I’d have time to rent a carpet cleaner and wash the carpet, but I won’t this week.  I would like to do that before the family party on the following weekend however.

So that’s the plan.  Week 2, already half over, is the front of the garage and M.’s room.  What are you working on this week?  If you haven’t already done so, you can read OrgJunkie’s Week 2 post here.

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Weekend Warrior. That’s me.

I have three birthday parties coming up, all at my house, over the next three weekends.  Things need doing.  A lot of things.  All now. (MUST DO ALL THE THINGS!)

I worked this morning, came home and ate, checked email (aka “screwed around online”), then jumped in.  I was planning a 20/10 but it became a 45/15 instead.  I went up to my older daughter H’s room, she of the birthday party with a bunch of 12-year-old girls tomorrow, which she had cleaned up this morning.  She has a full-size keyboard (all 88 keys, a pedal, a bench, the works) that needed to go live on its stand instead of on her dusty, and often cat-infested, floor.  So I did it.  WITHOUT the directions, which she had apparently cleaned up and put away before leaving for the afternoon.  It’s together, and it’s right.

Next, she had a table that she got for Christmas.  It’s a night-stand size table and the sides are peace signs.  We tried to put it together a month ago, but being fairly cheaply made the screws didn’t fit far enough through to actually be useful at holding things together, so I needed to find my box-o-screws (thank you Dad!) which took no time at all actually.  What took so long was finding time to put the thing together.  Today, I brought my screws up with my screwdriver set, and put that sucker together.

Then I rearranged her room a bit.  It wasn’t in my job description, but to fit the keyboard in against a wall instead of the middle of the rug where it had been squatting, it was necessary.  If she doesn’t like it, she can always move it back if she can figure out a better way (one that doesn’t involve putting the keyboard by the heaters).

Next, I’m on to either the library or a combination of that and M’s room, since most of the stuff that doesn’t belong in the library migrated there from M’s room.  And by most I mean all.  Updates later, if I’m still alive and not buried under a pile of stuffed animals.

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Weekend Update – The Organizing Version

This weekend has been pretty productive.  I always want to accomplish WAY more than I do, but I did ok.  I made a big dent in the basement in my office area.  I cleaned the bathroom, including mopping the floor.  Did I mention how much I love my Shark steam mop?  Seriously, this thing is the best purchase I’ve made in a long time.

I posted 8 boxes to ThredUp.com, one of which has already been ordered. I packed the box, labeled it and I’m ready to ship it tomorrow.

I’m making a good effort to keep up with dishes.  I got to take today off of laundry duty.  I could have done more downstairs today and didn’t, but I spent time doing crafts with M. so I don’t mind that I didn’t get more done.

All in all, not a bad weekend.  How about you?

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Organizing Plans

So, for my first and second weeks of organizing I’m working on the half of my garage that has been used for storage, and our downstairs family room.  I’m sort of combining both over the two weeks out of necessity.

The garage has been used for storage since we went down to just one car, and my husband’s work truck.  The truck was too big to fit in the garage, and since we still had stuff we were moving over from the old house it was a convenient place to put it all temporarily.  His company finally gave him a car since you could see the road through the bottom of the truck, so now he’ll be able to park it in the garage once there’s room.  Also, we’re finally having our generator installed on the 15th, so anything in the way of the circuit boards or the generator itself needs to be moved.

The family room needs to be cleaned up and better organized because H. is having some friends over the weekend of the 10th for her birthday party, and they need a place to hang out where they won’t make the rest of us crazy.  Much.

While I don’t necessarily expect to have everything completely put away in both places, I need to sort out a lot of boxes and figure out which rooms everything should be in or whether it should stay here at all.

One extra thing on my list is to put together a table in H’s room.  It’s partially put together, but then we realized the screws they included in one part are NOT long enough for the parts they’re supposed to connect if we want the table to actually stay together.  They just about reach, but not enough to screw in securely.  I found the longer screws, so now I just need to do it.

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52 Weeks of Organizing

I always need help getting (and keeping) my house organized.  Since moving, I’ve done a pretty good job of not letting things pile up too much upstairs.  The downstairs finished basement is another story since it’s been where the boxes that can’t stay in the garage end up.  It’s also my office, Chris’s office, the playroom and the family room with the big TV and the DVR.

Still, we have only been here for a few months and are still unpacking.   I’ve taken it slowly because I refuse to have stuff everywhere.  When I unpack something, I want to be able to find a place to put it.  If I can’t, or I don’t need it, out it goes.

With all the unpacking and organizing (and reorganizing) going on, I’ve found two sites that have some great tips and/or encouragement.  One is Orgjunkie, which I have known about for a while through OpenSky.  I had never actually been to the site, and finally got there tonight.  There is a series of posts on organizing throughout a whole year, taking on one small project each week.  I think that’s a good way to deal with all the unpacking and sorting and decorating, so I’m following along with the posts now.  The series is from last year, but I’m just starting at week one and working from there.

Now, that’s a great idea for the long-term stuff, but what about the more immediate concerns?  I can’t have the laundry pile up or the counter become a paperwork nightmare because it’s not the right week to handle it.  There are some things that need to be dealt with now, and regularly.  Enter in “Unf*** Your Habitat,” a Tumblr blog that encourages, threatens and–if necessary–just plain scares you into behaving and getting things done.  Their slogan is “Terrifying motivation for lazy people with messy homes.”  Oh yeah, that’s definitely for me.

Between the two, and just my need to keep my nice new house…well, NICE, I’m keeping up with all the laundry and dishes and regular washing of floors that just does not come naturally to me.  Not that I don’t know what to do, but I never really learned this stuff.  As a teenager, my job was to keep my grades up at school.  I had two chores at home:  dusting and washing/putting away any dishes there when I got home from school.  I still hate doing dishes, but I’m good at it.  I can dust like a madwoman.  For everything else, I learned once I moved out on my own.

So while my adventures in organizing may not be as much of an adventure for some of you, I’m betting there are plenty of you out there who could use the push to get moving too.  Feel free to join in, comment if you want to and let me know how things are going.

For this week, check out Orgjunkie’s intro post from her 52-week challenge, and the post for week one.  Print out the 52-Week Checklist if you’d like, and let me know where you’re starting your first week.  I’m still deciding where to start, but I’ll post again as soon as I know.

Well?  GET MOVING!

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Organizationally Challenged

Image by nist6ss via Flickr

That’s me.  Except when it’s not.  At home, I am a disaster.  I can’t seem to keep up with the housework, making dinner is a chore that I constantly have to remind myself to do, and no matter how much stuff I get rid of there always seems to be too much left over.  That’s “Home Me,” somewhere about half way between a beautiful house (although nowhere near Martha Stewart) and Hoarders.

Cut to “Work Me,” who is apparently a totally different person.  Here is a short excerpt from my review yesterday:

Her organizational abilities and attention to detail show in all the work she produces.

And no, my supervisor wasn’t just being nice.  At work, I am VERY organized.  I always have been, even when I worked in jobs I hated.  It’s even easier, comes even more naturally, in this job, which I love.

So how can I be so completely and utterly competent and organized at work and so…NOT at home?

In part, there are many more distractions at home.  Kids, husband, pets, TV, Computer; they all lead down a path that does not end in a clean and organized home or life.  Still, I’m trying to figure out ways to get my organizational skills, which based on my work life do in fact exist to show themselves at home.  Here are some things I know:

1) At work, everything has a place.  I’m still working on that at home.

2) At work, I move straight from one task to the next.  I do occasionally take a break, but only for a few minutes since I’m only there part-time.  On my “good” days at home, I do the same thing.  On the rest of my days, I can’t seem to build up any momentum at all.

3) I cannot plan any big projects for the two or three days a week when I have to transport my children to or from various places once I get out of work.  Just doing that, supervising homework, making and having dinner and getting M. bathed and ready for bed take up all of my time.  Those days are out as productive ones.

4) I need to make the most of the other four or five days a week when I’m home after work or off altogether.

How good are you at time management?  Work load management?

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Weekend Updated

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I realize it’s been a couple of days since I posted, and I do actually have two book reviews in the works that will be coming up soon.   Things have just been very busy in my non-writing life so I’ve been caught up with that.  As I mentioned before, Monday was H.’s 11th birthday.  Yesterday (Sunday) was M.’s birthday party for her 3rd birthday, which is actually on St. Patrick’s Day.  I’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting the house ready and getting all the necessary decorations and favors.  It’s been exhausting, but also good because it’s progress I can actually see.

Friday I decided to rip the carpet out of the downstairs hallway, an area not much bigger than a stair landing.  The carpet predates our buying the house by quite a bit, and was a disaster.  Cleaning it would have had no real effect, and our former dog (now living with my ex) destroyed areas of it around the doors trying to dig her way into/out of the rooms.  The floor underneath is the same wood as the living room, not just plywood.  Even though the floor is not in good shape cosmetically, it’s still a lot better than the carpet was.  I want to do the hall stairs too, because they’re also real wood, but not until M. is done with the stage where she still could potentially fall down them.  No need to make them slippery.

Sunday’s party went very well.  All of my in-laws came as well as my mom and Cliff, and M. had a blast with her cousin, C.  C. is three months older than M. and they play as well together as can be expected of two girls their age.  They had a great time, the food was good (with Chris’s help) and the house isn’t totally destroyed.

I’m still recovering from all the work, and there is a little more cleanup to do, but I’ll be posting at least one of the reviews either today or tomorrow. I broke my writing chain on Friday, and haven’t picked it up yet.  I decided since I had already missed a day I’d take the weekend off instead of driving myself crazy trying to find time.  I’ll restart today though.  I’ve decided I really want to spend more time now on rewriting and editing than on new work, unless I think of a great idea that can’t wait.

How did everyone else’s weekend go?

 

An Unfocused Day

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“Professionalism is knowing how to do it, when to do it, and doing it.”  ~ from a fortune cookie.

“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness.  You have to catch it yourself.”  ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Buy me stuff and I’ll be nicer.” ~ Happy Bunny

The first quote sounds like good business advice to me.  If you want to be professional, to present a professional face to the business world, it is certainly important to know how to do your job and when to do it.  But I think the most important part is “doing it.”  So many people, myself included, know what they should be doing, know that they should be doing it, but never follow through.  I know I have shown a remarkable lack of follow-through lately given the importance of the tasks I keep avoiding.  I’m trying to change that, but some days go better than others.

Ben Franklin about summed it up here.  Everyone has the right to pursue happiness.  But it isn’t owed to anyone, it isn’t guaranteed.  If you’re not willing to go out and get it, to chase after it, to work for it, then you’re just wasting your time.  Complaining about the unfairness of things does not change them.  I remind myself of that daily.

I love Happy Bunny.  I love the sarcastic, bitchy attitude.  I don’t really need people to buy me stuff in order for me to be nice to them, but it still cracks me up.  Most of the Happy Bunny things do.  Not that I would ever really want to be that mean or self-centered.  It’s not a mindset to aspire to, it’s just silliness and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

I’ve been working all day on finances.  I filed our 2010 taxes electronically, and I’ve been working on some other finance-related paperwork that I need to get done ASAP.  My brain is friend and I am exhausted.  I’m ready for bed and I haven’t finished what I need to get done for the day.

I’m not complaining, just stating facts.  It was a busy, somewhat stressful day.  I have more of it to look forward to tomorrow.  I’m pretty sure I’m doing ok in getting everything together.  I just wish I could be more organized.  I know, I know, I could be more organized, I just haven’t been working at it enough.  I’ve started though.  I really want to straighten out my house.  I want a place that isn’t cluttered, isn’t disorganized, isn’t generally a huge pain in my ass.  I’m getting there.  Slowly.  Right now, my upstairs bathroom is nearly perfect.  I’m not going for perfection, so what I mean by that is that it is exactly as I want it to be.  Things are put away.  Everything is clean, even the floor.  The cabinets are organized.  I can find any bathroom-related thing anyone could ask me for as long as we’re not out of it.  And I would know if we’re out of it because I know what we have.  It’s a good feeling, and I want it to spread to the rest of the house.

I’m so glad February is nearly over.  I’ve had about enough of this winter.  Plus, both of my daughters have March birthdays, 10 days (and 8 years) apart, one on St. Patrick‘s Day.  My older daughter is having a sleepover at her dad’s house because she won’t have an annoying little sister there to barge in on the party.  My younger daughter will be having her birthday party here, so I need to get the place in order!  She hasn’t decided what kind of birthday party she wants yet.  I’ll be helping her decide.  I am, however, cooking food for everyone with the new Philly Cooking Cream from the cream cheese people.  I’m getting supplies from HouseParty.com for throwing the party, and “demonstrating” it (by using it in my dishes) to all the grown-up party-goers.  I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also really nervous about being ready on time.

Do you write better in a more organized/less cluttered environment?

 

Getting Back on Track

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Today I am feeling somewhat better, but still pretty crappy by comparison to “normal.”  Which means I still have a headache lurking, my nose still won’t stop running, and I’m still coughing quite a bit, but I am able to stand upright for 5-10 minutes at a time.  I’m trying to keep a handle on living room toy clutter, and order less takeout today.  Plus, do laundry.  Lofty goals, I know.  I’d skip the laundry, but if I don’t do at least one load Chris won’t have clothes for work tomorrow.  I do have to run to the store because we’re low on some important things (like tissues!), but it’s two minutes away so I think I’ll make it.

My writing goals for today are as follows:

1) Start review of Shutter Island.
2) Write one article either to put up on one of the Associated Content/Helium-type sites, or for my file to query to magazines.
3) Spend at least 1/2 hour editing my novel.  I realized last night that, as with everything else in my life, if I don’t just start doing it I’ll never do it at all.  I’m not sure how many of you read my post about “finding time” for things, but my view is that it never happens.

I’m going to spend no more than an hour looking for freelance work today.  Not because it doesn’t deserve more time, but because I have so many other things on my list and I don’t want to over-do it.  Like I said, I’m still not feeling 100% today.

I do want to say that, no matter how bad I felt or how sick I was during the last couple of days, I have kept up my daily writing.  I’m on an 18-day streak on 750words.com.  Today will make 19.  That’s every day this month so far.  I have every intention of finishing.  I was initially very disappointed that I missed a day so early on in January and screwed up the challenge for that month, but now I’m glad in a way that February is my first month.  It is the shortest month, so I feel like it’s a good place to start.  It feels like I’ve barely started, and I’m more than half way there now.  Only 11 days to go.  I like looking at the statistics too.  I like seeing how many of us are sticking with it.   Today out of the 1,098 people who started on February 1st, only 407 are left.  Only 37%.  I’m happy to be in that 37% instead of on the other side.

One thing I realized I didn’t mention last month or this month was that the site gives you the option of assigning yourself a penalty and a reward.  I like that, because it’s just a bit of added incentive.  And I need every kick in the pants I can get.  Last month my penalty was to give $10 to the site if I didn’t finish the month, and buy a new book for myself if I won.  Since I missed a day, I gave money to 750words.com.

This month, I pledged a $10 contribution to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  If I finish, I’ll buy myself that book and move the donation to next month’s challenge, and possibly make it $20.  I plan to finish every month, but if I don’t I’ll at least be supporting a charity I believe in.  I plan to pick a new one every time I give money to one.  If I get to buy my book, I may choose a different reward, or just keep it the same.  I really like books, as you might have guessed.